04/19/08 - Judith Moretti Sends A Letter About Hamilton Avenue School To The Greenwich Time Editor And Asks Some Very Important Questions

To the editor,

As a resident, mother and grandmother. I find consideration by the Board of Education and the superintendent of schools of the idea to send their latest set of victims - children and teachers - to the now-condemned modular buildings astounding! ("Firm: Moldy mods can be fixed," Greenwich Time, April 12)

What statement can we expect from the teachers' union?

In that same vein, if the Building Department is asked to issue a certificate of occupancy, is the assurance that "we take away 90 percent of the problem" going to extend all future projects throughout the town that we are "almost" in compliance? I thought "almost" only counted when you played horseshoes!

Judith Moretti Greenwich

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04/04/08 - Forget About A Free Press - Censorship At The Greenwich Post - Helping Cover Shay's You Know What

Banned by Greenwich Post!!

by: thomashooker

According to Hersam-Acorn publisher Thomas Nash (email address: tbnash@acorn-online.com), I've been banned by Greenwich Post! Here's the sequence of emails leading to my journalistic defenestration. After I submitted the letter to the editor regarding Shays' CO status, which is published here at myleftnutmeg.com, and which I sent in before the deadline for letters to the editor, I received this from assistant editor Sara Poirier: "Dear Mr. Goldrick, I just wanted to give you a heads up in regard to your letter to the editor. After speaking with my publisher, we agreed that we most definitely want to run your letter, but would like to also get response from Chris Shays' camp on the important issues you raise and run the letters in the same issue. Being past deadline for this week's issue, it's only fair that we hold your letter until next week. Thank you. Sara" That really ticked me off. Here's my response to assistant editor Poirier and editor Kristan Zimmer: Dear Sara, That is complete and utter bullshit, and you, your publisher and your paper should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. This is a letter to the editor; it's not a news article. So there is no reason whatsoever to require it to be held out in order for Shays to submit a reply. He's perfectly able to respond in the next week's issue. Shays has been dodging my questions to him about his status as a conscientious objector for years now, and you have just helped him dodge the question for another week. And you've not only allowed him to dodge the question for a week, but you've held this question about his record out of discussion during this coming weekend when he is appearing at numerous town hall events. So this amounts to a blackout of important information about an elected official so that that elected official can get in and out of town without having to face up to this important question. What a disgrace. And this comes on the heels of Greenwich Post's having published a sleazy letter about Barack Obama, filled with bigotry and lies. You didn't have any problem about publishing that smear without Obama's input. What's different this week?....

There's More... :

My Left Nutmeg - Front Page - http://www.myleftnutmeg.com

03/21/08 - Your representation that I stated or implied this situation was due to any design or construction flaw is 100 percent false.

Letters from readers

To the editor:

The Modular Building Institute requests a correction to the errors and misstated comments in the article "Modular flaws went undetected," appearing in the March 17 issue of Greenwich Time. As the spokesman for the industry, I provided impartial facts concerning the "process" regarding approval of modular classrooms, but did not make any specific comments regarding the Connecticut school situation. To prevent my comments from being misrepresented again, I'd like to offer the following:

Mold does not discriminate regarding which type of classroom it chooses to grow in. It can and does occur in traditional classrooms as well as modular classrooms. In fact, the reason temporary classrooms were placed in this school district in the first place was due to mold found in the original school building.

Your representation that I stated or implied this situation was due to any design or construction flaw is 100 percent false and has been printed despite my objections.

We have stated on the record that there are many parties involved in the classroom construction process, from architects to engineers to inspectors to maintenance personnel. All the facts must be obtained before any conclusions are drawn in this situation.

In short, the entire article is misleading and inaccurate. When your writer contacted me with quotes she planned to use for this story, I replied to her in writing that same day that the "quotes" were misleading and that I had no knowledge of the specifics of this situation and couldn't comment on it. She chose to ignore my concerns and build her entire story around misrepresentations. The managing editor told me himself today that he supports the writer's "rephrasing" of my comments. In my opinion, this is a really sad commentary on the state of journalism.

How can a newspaper stand behind an article taken primarily from one source when that source notifies you ahead of time that what is going to press is inaccurate? Your readers should know the full story.

Our non-profit association will continue to provide schools and parents with information they can use to ensure that their children are in safe, comfortable learning environments, and we ask that your readers visit our Web site to get accurate and complete information.

Tom Hardiman

Charlottesville, Va.

The writer is executive director of the Modular Building Institute.

(Editor's note: Greenwich Time stands behind the accuracy of the story.)

See Also:

03/17/08 - "It's not just one classroom, it's the whole school," Tom Hardman of the Modular Building Institute said, "It's a bad situation all around.

03/20/08 - Why Won't Betty "You Can Trust Me" Sternberg Let Hamilton Avenue Parents Independently Test The Contaminated Modular Classrooms?

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